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Wander the World: Exploring a journey on the luxurious Blue Train · Wander the World with Pippa Hudson

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  Speaker 1: Join the conversation on Facebook.
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  Speaker 2: Like the Captal page to stay up to date.
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  Speaker 1: Up to date in Wonder the World. Today, we're exploring
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  Speaker 1: one of South Africa's most iconic rail journeys, the Blue Train.
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  Speaker 1: It's been carrying passengers between Cape Town and Pretoria for decades,
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  Speaker 1: offering a slower and a way more elegant way to
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  Speaker 1: see the country. Along the route, travelers get to step
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  Speaker 1: off and explore places like the historic village of Mikey,
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  Speaker 1: Swontegne and the diamond city of Kimberly, before of course,
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  Speaker 1: continuing on their journey in classic style. Today, our guest
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  Speaker 1: is a travel journalist, a registered tour guide, a guidebook
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  Speaker 1: author and editor of Eager Journeys dot com. Her name
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  Speaker 1: is Eager Motulska. I hope I pronounced your name correctly,
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  Speaker 1: and she's going to tell us all about her experience
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  Speaker 1: of recently climbing aboard the Blue Train. Welcome back, I
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  Speaker 1: should say to Cape talk Ega.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you so much, such a pleasure. And yes, IgA Motilska,
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  Speaker 3: you pronounced it perfectly.
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  Speaker 1: Perfect perfect. I must tell you I have always had
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  Speaker 1: a longing to jump onto the Blue Train and wondered
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  Speaker 1: about whether it actually would live up to as hype.
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  Speaker 1: So I'm very keen to have this conversation with you.
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  Speaker 1: I want to start with asking what's the first thing
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  Speaker 1: that travelers should know about the route between Cape Town
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  Speaker 1: and Pretoria and which direction is the better one to
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  Speaker 1: go in.
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  Speaker 3: I think that's a difficult question. I guess it's all
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  Speaker 3: based on personal preference. But all in all, it's a
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  Speaker 3: fifty four hour to night journey and it covers roughly
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  Speaker 3: one thousand, six hundred kilometers. So as you mentioned, you
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  Speaker 3: can either go from Cape Town to Pretoria or the
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  Speaker 3: opposite way. I've done both. I feel very lucky and
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  Speaker 3: privileged that I've done it on board the Robustrail and
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  Speaker 3: also the Blue Train, and regardless, you see beautiful things
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  Speaker 3: along the way, and as you mentioned, and it's one
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  Speaker 3: of the most luxurious train rides in the world, and
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  Speaker 3: it offers an all inclusive experience. So guests or really
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  Speaker 3: encourage us to surrender to what the Slow Train calls
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  Speaker 3: is like this luxury of slow And you can do
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  Speaker 3: that from your private suite, from the lounge car, from
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  Speaker 3: the club car at the back, where you'll also find
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  Speaker 3: a bar, or perhaps even the observation car, and so
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  Speaker 3: Essentially it's such a beautiful way to just watch the
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  Speaker 3: urban landscape slide by. And as you mentioned, there are
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  Speaker 3: of course two off train excursions as well, so it's
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  Speaker 3: not just about the train experience, but it's about going
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  Speaker 3: out and exploring places that perhaps maybe you might not
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  Speaker 3: have sought to experience.
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  Speaker 1: And what makes it a luxury experience in your opinion.
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  Speaker 3: Certainly the fact that it's all inclusive, That it's a
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  Speaker 3: five star hotel on wheels, so essentially the only thing
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  Speaker 3: that you would be paying extra for is if you
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  Speaker 3: want it to or a French champagne or a caveat
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  Speaker 3: for example.
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  Speaker 2: That there are.
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  Speaker 3: Beautiful multi course meals, the service is absolutely impeccable. You
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  Speaker 3: have a twenty four hour personal butler call regardless what
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  Speaker 3: you might need, whether it's a late nightcap or something
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  Speaker 3: like that. They also turned down your room from the
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  Speaker 3: daytime seating lounge area to either a twin or a
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  Speaker 3: double bed, so it's really all inclusive, and the off
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  Speaker 3: train excursions, the guided tours, all of that is fully included.
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  Speaker 1: Her. I know that also when it comes to luxury,
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  Speaker 1: the dining experience must be unlike any other. Talk us
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  Speaker 1: through a little bit of the menu, and then also
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  Speaker 1: just I'm going to say the performance of it, because
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  Speaker 1: is it true do you get dressed up for dinner?
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely, it's such an awesome experience. You know, men don
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  Speaker 3: their jackets, their tires, their bow tires. Women get dressed
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  Speaker 3: up in their cocktail, ball gown dresser.
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  Speaker 2: So it's really about HARKing back.
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  Speaker 3: To way back when and trying to sort of imagine
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  Speaker 3: ourselves in the times when the Blue Train became popular.
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  Speaker 3: But as you mentioned, there is so much food, and
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  Speaker 3: it's so beautifully plated and prepared, and of course it's
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  Speaker 3: all sustainable, all locally sauced. So breakfast, for example, includes
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  Speaker 3: the continental buffet options. I want you to imagine croissants
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  Speaker 3: and Danish pastries, lay and berry compart There's also of
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  Speaker 3: course a hot English breakfast to go with that, eggs,
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  Speaker 3: benedict or grilled beef, sausages, hash browns, you name it,
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  Speaker 3: the works, whatever your heart is. And then of course
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  Speaker 3: both lunch and dinner a multi course gourmet experiences. And
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  Speaker 3: so lunch for example includes a starter, a soup, main course,
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  Speaker 3: and various kinds of accompaniments.
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  Speaker 2: And then of course there's high tea.
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  Speaker 3: So I want you to imagine canopies and cakes and pastries,
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  Speaker 3: and of course a fleet free flowing bar. As I
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  Speaker 3: mentioned earlier, there are bars throughout the train and all
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  Speaker 3: the drinks are inclusive, whether they're alcoholic or non alcoholic
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  Speaker 3: as well, and dinner, of course, that's really the highlight
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  Speaker 3: I think for most people. So it's a six course
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  Speaker 3: fine dining affair. And of course the quality here really
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  Speaker 3: does rival some of the best land based restaurants that
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  Speaker 3: I've been to, And so you might start with, for example,
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  Speaker 3: potato pancakes layered with like smoked salmon and cavia. This
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  Speaker 3: could be followed by like a silky cauliflower soup or
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  Speaker 3: a palate cleanser of basil and lime sorbet afterwards, and
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  Speaker 3: you know, the main courses all about South African flavor,
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  Speaker 3: so grilled beef philet or maybe herpe crusted lamb loin.
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  Speaker 3: We've got local regional fish as well, and then for
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  Speaker 3: of course things like mango and passion fruit cheesecake which
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  Speaker 3: was my favorite, or a warm date pudding with vanilla
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  Speaker 3: ice cream, and so all of it tries to incorporate
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  Speaker 3: various kinds of elements of South African cuisine. Of course,
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  Speaker 3: all the meals are kosher, they're a hellal and they're
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  Speaker 3: also catered to a variety of different kinds of dietary requirements,
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  Speaker 3: so whether someone is vegan or vegetarian, perhaps maybe gluten
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  Speaker 3: or lactose intolerant, And of course, as I mentioned earlier
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  Speaker 3: as well, you also have room service delivered to your
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  Speaker 3: room if you would like, but I do recommend that
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  Speaker 3: dining in the dining carriage is something in and of itself.
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  Speaker 3: I also went behind the scenes to go tattoo some
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  Speaker 3: of the team in the kitchen, and I just want
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  Speaker 3: to say how impressed I was with the quality and
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  Speaker 3: the plating of the food, how absolutely impeccable it is.
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  Speaker 3: And then I compared it to the small, little, tiny,
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  Speaker 3: sort of rectangular kitchen, and I was just bloiled away
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  Speaker 3: by the wonders of how they make it all come together.
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  Speaker 3: And of course at each of the stops along the way,
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  Speaker 3: they replenish the supplies with fresh, regionally sourced local produce
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  Speaker 3: as well.
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  Speaker 1: We're chatting to Eager Motulska. She's of Eager Journeys, but
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  Speaker 1: she's a registered tour guide, a travel journalist and guidebook author.
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  Speaker 1: I'm already just thinking that it would just be cocktail
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  Speaker 1: hour the whole way through for me on the fifty
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  Speaker 1: four hour trip. Tell us a little bit about those
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  Speaker 1: two curated off train excursions. What can guess expect when
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  Speaker 1: they step off the tracks. It's Mikey Spontane in the
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  Speaker 1: carew as well as Kimberly.
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  Speaker 2: Right, yes, definitely.
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  Speaker 3: So if you're going from Pretoria all the way through
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  Speaker 3: to Cape Town, you'll stop at Kimberly first. And I
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  Speaker 3: want you to imagine how it all started, way back when,
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  Speaker 3: in eighteen sixty six, of course, when a young boy
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  Speaker 3: found a shiny, tiny little pebble, well not so tiny
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  Speaker 3: on the banks of the Orange, but it actually turned
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  Speaker 3: out to be the twenty one Carito Rica diamond. And
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  Speaker 3: of course a few years later they found that eighty
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  Speaker 3: three carrot stone and that's what started that frenzy which
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  Speaker 3: drew fifty thousand fortune seekers to this quiet little part
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  Speaker 3: of the northern Cape Farm. And of course the wealth
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  Speaker 3: built this city and it's a city of extraordinary First,
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  Speaker 3: I think Kimbera is quite humble, but an actual fact,
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  Speaker 3: it beat London to become the first city in the
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  Speaker 3: Southern Hemisphere with electric street lights. This was an eighteen
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  Speaker 3: eighty two. We also opened South Africa's or Africa's rather
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  Speaker 3: first stock exchange hearing Kimberley, and even opened the country's first.
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  Speaker 2: Flying school in nineteen thirteen.
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  Speaker 3: So when you stand at the Big Hole Museum, you
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  Speaker 3: look over the staggering, vertigo inducing chasm. Of course today
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  Speaker 3: it's filled with aquamarine water and it remains one of
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  Speaker 3: the largest hand dug excavations on Earth. And then the
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  Speaker 3: Canta Leave, a platform that we stood on, is actually
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  Speaker 3: designed to show you the exact dimensions of what an
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  Speaker 3: original nineteenth century mine claim how.
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  Speaker 2: Big it was.
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  Speaker 3: So this really gives you that visceral sort of sense
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  Speaker 3: of how small each of those little spaces that each
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  Speaker 3: miner had, And I want you to imagine like all
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  Speaker 3: of them side by side, thousands of people. Of course
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  Speaker 3: they're so I will say that exploring the Open Mind
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  Speaker 3: Museum was really fascinating, and it's so lovely to walk
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  Speaker 3: through the beautifully preserved movie like set of the old town,
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  Speaker 3: and many of the original buildings are still there. They
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  Speaker 3: have been saved from demolition, and there's even a church
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  Speaker 3: that was shipped all the way from Europe. So wonderful
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  Speaker 3: to do that guided excursion, and as you mentioned, Isella.
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  Speaker 3: Of course, the second stop is Mikey sponte in the
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  Speaker 3: Great Career, and I think what makes it so special
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  Speaker 3: is that when I stepped off of that off the train,
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  Speaker 3: aren't the tiny platform. It sort of feels like you're
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  Speaker 3: going directly into this beautifully preserved Victorian time capsule. So
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  Speaker 3: Mikey Spontane, of course, is stucked into the shadows of
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  Speaker 3: the Vitterberg and the swat Burgher Mountains. It's surrounded by
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  Speaker 3: the vast, silent landscape of the arid scrubland and windmills
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  Speaker 3: that we characterize the Hurat Kreu with. But it was
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  Speaker 3: envisioned by a young Scotsman back in eighteen eighty four,
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  Speaker 3: and it's because the crisp, dry Karu air was the
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  Speaker 3: antidote to the industrial smug of London, and so he
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  Speaker 3: established this very fashionable health spa for wealthy Brits. And
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  Speaker 3: of course today it remains a lovely place to visit
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  Speaker 3: and part of its undeniable charm, of course, is its size.
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  Speaker 2: So I walked the entire length of.
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  Speaker 3: Logan Street in less than ten minutes, and so you're
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  Speaker 3: walking past white walled buildings the old post office. There's
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  Speaker 3: a gorgeous pink New Gothic church as well, and there's
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  Speaker 3: a standard bank building that dates.
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  Speaker 2: Back to the nineteenth century.
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  Speaker 3: But of course I would say the most characteristic feature
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  Speaker 3: of Mighty Spontane is of course the Lord Milner Hotel.
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  Speaker 2: It's called the Great Dame or the Grand.
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  Speaker 3: Dame of the Crew, and inside when you walk around
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  Speaker 3: you'll hear and see the creaking yellowood floors, high ceilings,
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  Speaker 3: velvet drapes, and antique brass fixtures. This is a perfect
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  Speaker 3: place to go grab a drink as well. But I
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  Speaker 3: think the highlight for me as a writer was seeing
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  Speaker 3: the cottage where author and activist Olive Schreiner lived for
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  Speaker 3: a few years.
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  Speaker 2: Of course, we know she was light years ahead of
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  Speaker 2: her time.
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  Speaker 3: She was fighting for racial equality and women's rights, and
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  Speaker 3: she lived here for a couple of years, and that's
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  Speaker 3: where she actually penned thoughts on South Africa. So she
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  Speaker 3: sent off the manuscript from the post office next door.
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  Speaker 3: And an interesting fact is that Raddyatt Kitling actually traveled
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  Speaker 3: all of this way to her there as well, so
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  Speaker 3: today you can even.
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  Speaker 2: Stay in the cottage.
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  Speaker 3: It forms part of the Lorden in the hotel, so
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  Speaker 3: even if you're not on the Blue Train, you can
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  Speaker 3: very happily go and visit as well. And I think
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  Speaker 3: it's wonderful that these off train excursions show us a
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  Speaker 3: different side of South Africa that perhaps we might not
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  Speaker 3: always see.
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  Speaker 1: And I love that it's completely nostalgic the strip. Then
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  Speaker 1: Mark says the Pretoria to Cape Town Way is much better.
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  Speaker 1: Really something special about arriving home in the mother city
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  Speaker 1: and seeing the mountain and the sea. And I don't
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  Speaker 1: think we'll disagree with you, Mark, What would it trip
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  Speaker 1: like this cost? Ega?
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  Speaker 3: So I do want to say that if you have
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  Speaker 3: a look on a Blue Train dot zero dot, all
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  Speaker 3: of the prices there off for the international market. So
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  Speaker 3: I will say that if you're a South African citizen
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  Speaker 3: or if you're a Sadak resident, please do get in
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  Speaker 3: touch with your local travel agent to book the Blue
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  Speaker 3: Train because they are able to offer you discounted package
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  Speaker 3: deals that you won't be able to.
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  Speaker 2: Find on their website.
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  Speaker 3: And I also encourage you to have a look at
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  Speaker 3: the low season, which is between at January and August.
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  Speaker 3: And it's a little bit difficult to say exactly what
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  Speaker 3: the price is because it naturally depends.
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  Speaker 2: Sometimes your travel agent.
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  Speaker 3: Might book that flight for YouTube Pretoria for you to
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  Speaker 3: take the Blue Train back down. They might also include
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  Speaker 3: overnight accommodation in Pretoria or in Johannesburg beforehand. So it's
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  Speaker 3: a little bit tough to say exactly because it depends
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  Speaker 3: on what kind.
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  Speaker 2: Of hotel you would choose and the flights and so on.
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  Speaker 3: But it's much much more affordable, So I don't want
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  Speaker 3: people to be discouraged when they have a look at
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  Speaker 3: the website. Get in touch with the local travel agent
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  Speaker 3: and they'll be able to assist you with that.
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  Speaker 1: Egil, thank you so much for chatting to us today,
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  Speaker 1: and you've painted such a beautiful, vivid picture of your
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  Speaker 1: trip on the Blue Train. Of course, guidebook author registered
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  Speaker 1: to a Guide, travel journalist and editor of journeys dot com,
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  Speaker 1: Iger Matulska sharing with us how she climbed aboard the
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  Speaker 1: Blue Train recently and really just painting a picture for us,
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  Speaker 1: truly of that fifty four hour, two night journey covering
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  Speaker 1: roughly one thousand, six hundred kilometers either from Cape Town
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  Speaker 1: or Pretoria. Just giggling here because Mandy's saying so ironic.
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  Speaker 1: I told my sister in law yesterday that she must
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  Speaker 1: bring my brother for a holiday year there from New Zealand.
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  Speaker 1: She said, yes, they would be lovely and they want
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  Speaker 1: to go on the Blue Train. Do they really travel
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  Speaker 1: that far? I think it's absolutely delightful. Two nights, I
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  Speaker 1: actually think is quite short for you to be waking up,
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  Speaker 1: and I can just imagine as you're traveling through that
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  Speaker 1: you go to sleep in one place and you're waking
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  Speaker 1: up completely indifferent. What a wonderful experience. And we say
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  Speaker 1: thank you so much. That was wonder the world for today.